Visit Wotsat.com for daily news, reviews and updates from the world of digital TV, or join our forums.

Want to see more?

Step-by-step guides to making the most of your digital TV

Project

Freesat without the box

Freesat Freeview euro tv skyThe best kit, The best programmes

2 What Satellite & Digital TV

without the boxYou don’t have to use an official receiver. Project 1: Tuning ITV HD. Project 2: Hacking the Freesat EPG. Project 3: Using the data. Project 4: Network playback

If you know how, you can watch ITV HD shows like Wired on non-Freesat HD satellite receivers

Hurrah for Freesat! Yes, we’re pleased that there’s now a satellite equivalent of Freeview

– and one that even manages a smattering of HD content, provided that you choose a compatible Freesat box.

There are many people who don’t want to subscribe to Sky and live in areas where digital terrestrial reception is poor. Freesat thus enables almost anyone in the UK to ‘go digital’ if they’re in a position to erect a dish with a clear view of the satellites that carry the programmes.

These satellites are Astra 2x and Eurobird 1 – the same birds that bring Sky into our home. Indeed, as far as non-subscription channels are concerned they’re often the same signals. If you have a Sky Digital dish or (a feature of many new housing developments) a satellite wallplate outlet fed by a communal dish,

courtesy of an IF distribution system, this can be used with Freesat. We’ll discuss these issues in greater depth later.

The choice of Freesat boxes is, alas, quite limited. In addition, the available products are restricted in terms of flexibility. Luxury FTA PVRs with one or more tuners and HD compatibility are available now; official Freesat PVRs have only just arrived. With this in mind, it’s good to know that nearly all of the Freesat content is available to FTA equipment, as we’ll discover. If you opt to install a FTA receiver and motorised dish, the quantity of TV and radio channels available in your home will greatly exceed Freesat’s capabilities.

Freesat would never have launched without attractive content. Until Freesat arrived, the satellite simulcast of Channel 4’s bouquet of channels was only

available to Sky subscribers, or those opting for Freesat from Sky. They were encrypted in Videoguard to prevent their reception outside the UK – areas for which Channel 4 hasn’t been granted the broadcasting rights for some material. Freesat is, by its very nature, an FTA offering – which means that its channels must be unencrypted.

These channels can thus be received on any digital satellite system with a dish aimed at 28.2°E, regardless of whether the indoor equipment is a Sky Digibox, Freesat or an FTA model. Channel 4 HD is currently encrypted, and so only available to those with Sky HD. In addition, none of Five’s channels is available on free-to-air satellite, although the Freesat website assures us that they’re coming soon. As soon as they do, any FTA receiver should be able to tune in.

ProjecT

What Satellite & Digital TV 3

Project

selected when available using the red button of Freesat HD handsets. ITV had to do this because the channel is carried via a Europe-wide beam of the Eurobird 1 satellite. It doesn’t have the rights to beam its content into Europe, and so it has had to cleverly take steps to hide its signal from non-Freesat (and thus non-UK) viewers. Encryption wasn’t an option and space on Astra 2D’s narrow-beam transponders was unavailable.

Unfortunately, the non-standard nature of these broadcasts means that Sky HD receivers don’t know what to do with the signals.

That’s not to say that reception of ITV HD on non-Freesat kit is impossible. Most HD-capable FTA receivers and programs designed for use with PC digital tuner cards allow you to specify the various tuning parameters of a channel (including PIDs) and as a result you can coax many of them into providing usable results with a manual search (Box 2).

Some HD FTA boxes like the Vantage range and MVision’s HD200 Combo are sold as compatible. ITV HD is carried on the same transponder as Brit Shorts/Shorts TV, and it is straightforward for users of desktop digital TV software like DVBViewer to modify the Brit Shorts settings in the channel list editor for ITV HD (DVBViewer users should use the procedure in Box 3 – but use the channel data given in Box 2!).

The result can then be saved as a new channel. Unfortunately, the Sky HD box is a non-starter

– the manual configuration (‘Add Other Channels’) options of this box, as with other Sky Digiboxes, are extremely limited and there’s little you can do with them. Unless Sky issues a firmware update to its boxes to enable them to receive ITV HD as it is presently broadcast, the chances are that Sky HD subscribers will only be able to enjoy this channel if Sky provides support to ITV for the creation of an alternative version that would appear in the Sky Guide’s HD Channels list. For political reasons, if nothing else,

One of the main advantages of Freesat – certainly if you’re using one of the HD boxes – is that it’s the only route to ITV’s fledgling free-to-air, hi-def channel which brings you the sporadic delights of Premiership football, high-profile ITV1 drama, and movies.

However, ITV HD is broadcast in a non-standard manner as a data service, which is

this is unlikely. Also denied the wonders of ITV HD is the Pace DS810, owing to an inability to specify or edit key service parameters (it’s about time that Pace provided a suitable firmware update for this unit). As for our experiments, we had partial success with a Vantage HD8000S – picture but no sound, even with an external Dolby Digital decoder – but no luck at all with an AB IPBox 9000HD.

With DVBViewer we could record the transport stream for playback by the TSPlayer program that accompanies older versions of DVBViewer GE (downloadable from the DVBViewer members area) but it wouldn’t display correctly in DVBViewer itself (BBC HD worked fine, demonstrating that we had no problems with codecs and so on). Others have reported success with Humax’s HDCI-2000. Be prepared, then, to consider ITV HD as a nice bonus if you can get it. At this stage its reception shouldn’t be taken for granted – and be prepared for experimentation. We hope space will be found for the channel on a UK spot-beam before too long.

toolkitWhat you need to access Freesat services n Latest version of Freesat EPG parser at time of writing www.mediafire.com/?zh3vy2zii9gn Beta version of DVBViewer, older versions of DVBViewer GE (with TSplayer) and XMLTV Importer: DVBViewer ‘member’s area’ (www.dvbviewer.com/members/). Note that this site is only available to registered users of this programn DVBViewer: www.dvbviewer.comn ProjectX: project-x.sourceforge.netn Windows.NET 3.5 Framework, Windows Media Connect and Windows Media Player: www.microsoft.comn Mplex1.exe: http://members.aon.at/johann.langhofer/mplex1.htmn Pinnacle ShowCenter: http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/uk/Products/Consumer+Products/Digital+Media+Adapters/Digital+Media+Player/ShowCenter+250+HD.htm

The Vantage 9000 HD is one of several

satellite receivers which can be set up

to receive both of Freesat’s current

hi-def TV channels

How to....

Tuning into ITV HD with an HD-ready FTA receiverITV HD is carried on the same multiplex/transponder as the (sub) standard-definition Brit Shorts/Shorts TV. With HD-ready FTA receivers, carry out a manual scan after entering the parameters that follow. These are non-standard, and a receiver won’t find the channel with its default settings or automatic scanning – in our experience not even blind searching works here. That, of course, is ITV’s intention. If you’re using a PC running DVBViewer, bring up Brit Shorts in the channel editor. Modify the settings to those shown here and then click on ‘add’. If your PC is fast and has a H.264 software decoder installed you should get a picture. ITV HD broadcasts a ‘This service is currently unavailable’ message when it’s not broadcasting – which, sadly, is most of the time.Frequency: 11.427GHzPolarity: HSymbol rate: 27500Fec: 2/3Video PID: 3401Audio PID: 3402Pcr PID: 3401Video Type: H.264Audio Type: AC3

Project 1: ItV HD without a Freesat box

4 What Satellite & Digital TV

How to....Setting up the Freesat ePG delivery channelThese instructions apply to the popular DVBViewer software, but similar procedures will apply to other desktop TV software.1. Ensure that you can receive Brit Shorts – if it’s not in your channel list carry out a scan.2. Bring up the channel editor, and bring up Shorts. 3. Change ‘Video’ to ‘3002’ . 4. Change ‘Audio’ to ‘3003’5. Change ‘PCR’ to ‘3001’6. Change ‘Name’ to ‘Freesat EPG’ 7. Change ‘ServiceID’ to ‘0’8. Click on the ‘Add’ button The resulting channel will display no video if you try to watch it. But if you record it as a transport stream, the result can be loaded into the Freesat EPG Parser.

All FTA receivers work with DVB-standard EPGs, but Freesat employs a proprietary EPG based on MHEG-5. This provides extra features not available in the DVB format, such as up to 14 days of programme information (though only seven days are currently provided) and series links for long-running programmes.

So standard FTA receivers will only pick up the DVB now-and-next information for Freesat channels, which is practically useless for timer scheduling. There’s little chance that the Freesat EPG will be supported by FTA receivers unless someone hacks the firmware (likely contenders here are Linux-based receivers like the Dreambox).

However, if you have a PC with a digital satellite tuner card and software like DVBViewer you can grab the Freesat EPG data from the transponder that carries it and view the

schedules on a PC. The transponder in question is 11.427GHz/H, which is also responsible for Brit Shorts/Shorts TV (and ITV HD). If this is already present in your channel list you can modify it as shown on the right and save it as a new channel (call it ‘Freesat EPG’ or something similar).

Record two minutes or so of this channel in transport stream (.TS) format – you might need to change your TV software’s recording settings to achieve this.

On the internet you can find a free Windows program called Freesat EPG Parser. Download and install this – you’ll also need the Windows NET 3.5 framework package from Microsoft’s website. Run the EPG parser and, after clicking on ‘Freesat Loader’, load the transport stream you recorded earlier (step 3 in Project 3). If all’s well, the EPG data will start appearing in a table.

Install the ‘MyXML’ plugin (‘XMLTV Importer’) available from the program’s Members’ Area, then DVBViewer can import the XML data generated by the parser and the data will be displayed in conventional EPG format provided that you first ‘map’ the EPG data to your DVBViewer channel list, and schedule timer events.

DVBViewer users can also use the program’s Netstream architecture to feed the parser directly without the need to mess about with recording transport streams. These details are also given in Project 3.

Your TV tuner software needs to be configured to record .mpg files, which are compatible with most networkable media players. Few media players can deal with raw transport streams – the alternative recording option provided by software like DVBViewer – but it is possible to

If you have a PC equipped with a digital tuner card and a home network you can arrange for TV programmes recorded with the digital TV software to be viewed on networked media players like the Pinnacle Showcenter.

Install Windows Media Connect or a similar universal Plug and Play (uPnP) media server and share the folder containing your recordings as shown in Box 5. Note that a media server is built into the latest Windows Media Player (version 11), as supplied with Vista. The main advantage is that you can build up a library of your favourite TV shows and play them in any room where such a networkable media device is present. Useful if there’s no aerial feed in that room. You’re advised to create a logically organised hierarchical folder structure for your recordings so that you can quickly find a specific file.

An alternative is to install a NAS (network-attached storage), which is basically a hard drive with a network connection. It’s important to choose one with an onboard uPnP media server. Your media files can then be copied to the NAS and will be available to all networked players even when your PC is turned off. Even Wi-Fi connections can cope reasonably well with the low-ish bitrate MPEG-2 video associated with modern digital TV.

The Project X demultiplexer can be used to turn Freesat transport streams into standard MPEG movie files that will play back on any media device

Import XML EPG info direct into DVBViewer

Project 2: Hacking the Freesat ePG

Project 4: Satellite media and networking

‘demultiplex’ these transport streams. Use the freeware Java-based ProjectX demultiplexer – the mp2 (audio) and m2v (video) streams can then be remultiplexed into a standard .mpg file with the simple command-line program Mplex1.exe n Martin Pipe

What Satellite & Digital TV 5

Project

Go to the Plugins/Netstream Settings menu

n Ensure that the IP address 127.0.0.1 is in the Unicast ‘Interface’ boxn Ensure that max. Users is set to 1’n Ensure that ‘Port’ is set to ‘2345’n Ensure that Buffercount is set to ‘100’n Click on ‘Unicast’ radio-buttonn Check the ‘Active’ boxn Click on ‘OK’

Go to Plugins/Netstream and click on ‘Active’ – a tick should appear beside it.

n Run the Freesat Parsern Click Menu, and choose ‘Import Freesat’.

Ensure that the correct IP address (127.0.0.1) and port (2345) are displayed in

the ‘network’ dialog box. Click on ‘go’. If you’re using a digital TV tuner program without Netstream support, you can import a previously-made transport stream recording of the EPG data in the TS file dialogue box (below) – click ‘open’ to locate and highlight the file, and then ‘go’.

The dialogue box should then report ‘Connected to Stream’ – you should see the

number of events (individual programmes) found and services (channels) displayed in greyed-out

01

02

03

03

04

form. When this process is complete, i.e. the number of events has not increased for some time – click on ‘Stop’, then ‘Close’. The list of events is displayed in a long list – one event per line. This isn’t user-friendly and you can’t use it to schedule timer events. But if you’re using DVBViewer, the ‘MyXML’ plug-in can address this problem.

Click on the Freesat Parser’s menu/export to xmltv option. Call the resulting file ‘epg

<today’s date>’, ensure that the ‘Create myxmltv config’ box is checked, and then click ‘save’. You’ll be asked for the location of DVBViewer’s channels.dat file (which contains your channel list). This is usually located in the Program Files\DVBViewer directory.n Run myXMLTV.exe. Click on the ‘load’ button (under the icon of a disc and box) and choose the EPG data file you’ve just created. This brings up the ‘XML TV Channel Settings’ dialogue box. At the bottom of this box you’ll find the DVBViewer Channel.dat box – click on the ‘load’ button and locate the DVBViewer channel.dat from the DVBViewer directory.n You’ll then be presented with a list of ‘XML Channels’ on the left side of this window. Highlight each of the radio and TV channels of interest, and locate its appropriate match in the adjacent ‘DVBViewer Channels’ box (to speed the task, typing in the first letters of the channel name will ‘home in’ on suitable candidates). This ‘matches’ the EPG data with your channel list.

05

Repeat until all channels have been processed in this way. Then press the OK button.

Click on ‘import’. The XML TV Importer will work through the EPG data, creating an

EPG that’s compatible with DVBViewer.

Go to DVBViewer to select ‘EPG Window’. Then select channels and schedule data.

This procedure is a chore, but you only need do it once a week. We hope for better integration soon. As this article goes to press a new beta version of DVBViewer Pro with integral support for the Freesat EPG is available in the DVBViewer Members’ Area. When correctly configured, this promises to automatically ‘grab’ the Freesat EPG data from Eurobird’s 11.427GHz/H transponder. This information is then presented in the DVBViewer EPG.

06

07

Project 3: configuring DVBViewer’s Netstream plug-in and extracting the ePG data